This invention relates generally to highway traffic control systems and particularly to barriers for forming traffic lane dividers. Still more particularly, this invention relates to a movable traffic lane barrier to make available traffic lanes in greater number according to the direction of heaviest traffic flow.
It is conventional practice to use road dividers during peak traffic hours to increase the number of lanes available in the direction of heavier traffic and to reduce the number of lanes for vehicles moving in the opposite direction.
Some highways use barriers that are manually positioned to control the number of lanes available to traffic flowing in each direction on a highway. These manually placed barriers are often used on bridges. Manually positioned barriers are easily displaced by even minor collisions with vehicles and have no capability of preventing traffic from crossing over into the path of oncoming traffic.
There have been several devices constructed to provide barriers that are mechanically movable, but these previous devices fail to prevent crossovers and none known to have gained acceptance for use on public highways.